ExCeL London Caters For A Record Number of Visitors

Tuesday Mar 30, 2004

ExCeL London, the new home for the Schroders London Boat Show in 2004, helped bring in a record 210,300 crowd to the venue over the 10 day show in January. Celebrating its 50th anniversary, the Boat Show heralded it as the most successful Boat Show they've held to date, with a 45% increase in visitors.

ExCeL London's retail units and freestanding units also had an extremely successful show, with the average visitor spending around £7.50 each. Some of the food and drink that was consumed over the 10 days, included:

  • 100,000 coffees
  • 30,000 hot dogs
  • 24,000 chestnuts
  • 20,000 pizzas
  • 12,000 filled bagels
  • 10,000 cornish pasties
  • 60,000 pints of Guiness
  • And not to be out done, the Sunseeker Champagne Bar went through 1,400 bottles of champagne!

    • Says Giorgio Fioravanti, Costa Coffee Retail Operations Manager: "We have had a tremendous show, with the highest revenue intake to date. In fact, sales were up 20%. We sold over 35,000 hot drinks, 30% of which, were café Lattes! The ExCeL London catering team provided us with ExCeL Londonlent visitor guidelines so we were well prepared for the record number of visitors that came to the show."

    Says Paul Salter, Birleys Managing Director: "The Boat Show was fantastic for us. We had continual record days in our burger section, selling over 12,000 burgers during the show, including 1,500 on the final Saturday, which was a record day overall for our operations at ExCeL London. We had by far and away our best week at ExCeL London, and the customer flow went very smoothly, as it appeared to throughout the whole exhibition area. The whole thing seemed to have the feel of total success, which we are sure is reflected throughout the retail operators. We were delighted with the performance of all our staff and look forward to a repeat next year. A huge success for ExCeL London!"

    Says Mike Dawson, ExCeL London's Head of Retail & Hospitality: "ressed with the choice and variety at ExCeL London. This is something that we pride ourselves on and we continually look to improve our offering for future events."

    Says exhibitor Michael Sylvester, GJW Direct, after dining at Pizza this, Pasta That: "Ten out of ten, and I am not easily impressed. It was a very relaxed, nice atmosphere."

    For more information, please contact Gemma Parkhouse at ExCeL London on 020 7069 4739 or email gemmaparkhouse@ExCeL-london.co.uk

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